Unfiltered me..

Here’s my thoughts and notes I’ve written that never see it out of my notes app….

1. The empty head

Does anyone else feel like their brain just stopped working in perimenopause? Jeeewhizz. Can we just do a reboot on this for a minute?

It’s like it’s empty. The words have just gone. The forgetfulness of appointments. The staring at the screen with nothing there. The ‘I don’t know what I was doing’. Constant ‘Alexa remind me to…’

This is not you losing your mind. This is perimenopause doing what perimenopause does and it deserves to be talked about out loud.

Brain fog is one of the most common and probably least talked about symptom. Brain fog is when we are finding it hard to concentrate and remember things; like nothing is clear. It can be very frustrating and anxiety provoking.

Symptoms include:

• Forgetting words

• Poor concentration

• Poor verbal learning

• Losing flow in conversation

• Time lapses

  
  

The why behind the fog

There are oestrogen receptors in the part of your brain responsible for memory and emotion. Oestrogen also supports the protein that helps your brain consolidate memories. So when oestrogen drops, your brain feels it. Add stress and poor sleep on top and it’s no wonder your brain feels like it’s running on empty.

2. Consistency doesn’t always look like motivation

I’m not always motivated. Do you think I wake up at 4:45am when my alarm goes off thinking ‘yes, I can’t wait to get out of bed at this time?’ even when I’ve barely slept? No. But it works for me.

I plan my day around it. I wouldn’t go in the evening, that’s the whole reason I do it in the morning. It’s part of me now (I’ve done it for 20+ years), part of my routine. And deep down, most of us need some bits of routine. Routines anchor us.

I’m a morning person and will happily go to bed at 8pm without batting an eyelid. There’s small sacrifice to anything we want in life. The job. The routine. The life. The family.

I’m not saying you should be at the gym at 5am. But what is your thing? What is the version of movement that fits your life - not the ideal life, the actual one you’re living right now? That’s where consistency lives. Not in motivation. In a decision you made once, that you just keep showing up for. Maybe it’s a lunchtime workout? Maybe it’s after work.

Find your YOU!

3. Scales. Clothes and what actually matters

To maintain your weight doesn’t mean saying ‘forget it’ and eating whatever you want. It means being consistently conscious of what you’re eating. Let’s say, you’ve lost weight and if you go back to eating exactly how you did before, I hate to say this, but of course it’s going to go back on. That’s why the cycle keeping happening.

But here’s the thing. Your clothes fitting better isn’t a scales problem. That’s a fat loss win. Those are two completely different things, but we’ve been so conditioned to only celebrate one of them.

The scale doesn’t know the difference between fat, muscle, water, or a big lunch. Your jeans do.

Stop waiting for a number to tell you something good is happening when your body is already telling you every single morning.

4. The real reason we convince ourselves we can’t

We convince ourselves we can’t do something because deep down, there’s something that doesn’t feel right. Usually it’s because it doesn’t align with who we actually are.

Take perfection. Does being ‘good’ every single day sit with you as a person? Are you a perfectionist in the rest of your life? Probably not. So why are you expecting that from yourself when it comes to food and fitness?

We say: I can’t do it because it’s the school holidays. Because it’s not the perfect time. Because something isn’t quite right yet.

But sometimes the real block is the approach itself. You’re trying to do it the same way you always have and expecting a different result. Or you’re not willing to reach out for help.

If I hadn’t got help to change my relationship with food, I’d still be exactly where I was. Still fearing it.

My journey is far from perfect at the moment. And that’s fine. Because perfect has never been the point. The point is to keep going anyway - imperfectly, inconsistently sometimes, and finding the new where you’re at each week.

Progress and habits don’t come from the prefect weeks, thats easy.. they come from the imperfect, busy, hard weeks. We build the good habits when life is hard and then they become easy to stick to!

The reason you keep stopping isn’t lack of willpower. It’s that somewhere along the way, you decided you had to have everything right in place first.

Start with what you’ve got. The ‘right time’ is the one you’re already in.

Ready to stop starting over?

I have space for new clients right now. Come and work with me. Book a free, no obligation chat about your journey and see if it’s right for us!

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